Articles

We are close to the announcement of the world's premier architecture prize. Here, we open the discussion on which architects from Portuguese-speaking countries deserve this honor. What is your take? 

The third edition of the EA USS Workshop, organized by the School of Architecture at Universidad San Sebastián (Chile), featured Belgian architect Kersten Geers, founding partner of OFFICE KGDVS. In addition to participating in a series of discussions with workshop attendees, Geers held a public conversation with Enrique Walker and delivered a keynote lecture presenting his work and architectural reflections.

The 2018 edition brought together 14 teams, 11 of which represented domestic architecture schools, while 3 came from international institutions in Peru, Argentina, and Costa Rica—totaling 96 participants, including students and faculty advisors. To foster the development of projects capable of driving debate, each day of the workshop addressed a distinct theme, beginning with strategies led by Ernesto Silva, Director of the Santiago campus of EA USS, followed by the materialization of the project, led by Albert Tidy, Dean of the USS Faculty of Architecture.

To conclude, on Friday, October 26, an exhibition of the work produced by the teams was held, alongside an engaging conversation between Enrique Walker and Kersten Geers. The event wrapped up with a social gathering to celebrate the meeting of the schools and the high quality of the projects.

It is rare to find architects who engage with such a wide range of both the theoretical and practical dimensions of the profession. This is the case of Rubén Moreira [1], who approaches architectural design, research, criticism, architectural history, and teaching with equal and outstanding competence [2].

Rubén Moreira not only began his professional practice during a highly fertile period of Ecuadorian architecture, but also witnessed its key quests and transformations [3]. He was part of a generation of architects that reflected deeply on architectural processes, methods, and products [4]. His intellectual curiosity is clearly reflected in his postgraduate studies in Italy under two leading figures of architectural theory: Bruno Zevi and Manfredo Tafuri [5]. He taught design studio and history while pursuing research in architectural history. He also championed the creation of the MAE [6], as well as the Exhibition and Critical Guide of the "Architecture of Quito 1915-1985," which analyzes the context, authors, and landmark projects of each decade.

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The practice of Chilean architects Abraham Schapira and Raquel Eskenazi is notable, among many other aspects, for its use of the balcony as a defining element in facade composition. Their work, located primarily in the municipalities of Providencia and Las Condes in Santiago, and in Viña del Mar, offers a rich diversity of typologies, uses, and layouts through formal treatment, engaging with Chile's modern urban proposals.

Designed by Andrea Fuentes Núñez, the project Mixed-Use Housing was chosen as one of the 10 winners in the Thesis Projects category of the 2018 Concurso Arquitectura Caliente (CAC 2018), a Chilean competition organized by Grupo Arquitectura Caliente and funded by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.

Today, there is a pressing need for housing to move beyond domestic specificity. National and global economic shifts have driven individuals to seek new means of livelihood, meeting their needs by clinging to what they own and utilizing their only available land—their own property. By blending work and domestic life, the question arises: to what extent does housing yield to accommodate productivity?

Biomimicry in architecture does not prescribe form, nor does it strive for literal resemblance. Rather, the goal is to develop architectural solutions that execute strategies observed in nature. It is not about form for form's sake, nor is it about copying shapes; instead, it seeks a deeper reasoning behind those forms. Indeed, it goes far beyond merely drawing inspiration from shapes. It examines context, systems, and interrelations, and the true beauty of biomimicry lies in these connections. Architectural creation remains free, as it is guided by a design principle—the strategy of how nature achieves the performance a project requires for a specific demand. It is a process of co-creation between biology and architecture, making it truly transdisciplinary.

Led by Cazú Zegers and GrupoTalca, AndesWorkshop 2017 took place last May and June in Patachoique, Lonquimay (Chile), in collaboration with the Arenales Mapuche community. The project aims to design the Mirador de la Corona alongside students and local communities, a structure that has already had a significant impact on Pehuenche communities, serving as a catalyst for the macro-project Ruta Pehuenche.

2018 has been a special year for ArchDaily in Colombia: not only did we celebrate the first three years of our local site in Bogotá alongside prominent architects, and are now poised to set a new annual traffic record, but we also launched ArchDaily Colombia's Instagram account—which, thanks to you, has already reached 10,000 followers in just six months.

To wrap up this great year, we have selected the most popular projects—measured by total engagement, excluding reposts—on @archdailyco:

Fundación Arquia has published a new issue of its digital magazine Arquetipos, featuring an interview with sculptor and artist David Bestué, conducted by architect Moisés Puente with photography by José Hevia. The issue also includes articles on Olympic urban planning, the relationship between architecture and sculpture in the work of Chillida, Enric Miralles, Sert, Kiesler, and much more.

In the interview, titled "Language as Object," David Bestué (Barcelona, 1980) discusses how he approaches architectural space in his work, the influence of artists such as Dan Graham, Robert Smithson, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Juan Muñoz, and his interest in the formal qualities of work by architects Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós (the "local modern").

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For this feature, the Fundación Arquia Blog, alongside architect Sabrina Gaudino Di Meo, brings us a conversation with architect Nerea Calvillo on how the project "In the Air" came to be. This multidisciplinary work, bridging data and ecology, visualizes urban air components to understand the behavior of microscopic agents and the implications of their concentrations for navigating the city.

With more than 350 Colombian projects now published on ArchDaily, we celebrate this milestone with a curated selection that highlights the value of drawings in conceptualizing, designing, and constructing contemporary Colombian architecture.

While drawing is often associated with a project's earliest conceptual stages, Colombian architects continue to use sketching to explain structure, program, and even construction details in an era otherwise dominated by the efficiency of 3D modeling and rendering.

This selection ranges from single-family homes to public parks, including mixed-use facilities, kindergartens, and university buildings across Colombia.

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In this piece, Daniel Morales Escudero offers a reflection on the Terminal 2 project in Valparaíso, addressing the proposal through the lens of Chile's three legal grounds for abortion.

The team comprising Giovani Valeria, Nitzy Vera, Sofía Vargas, and Stefanía Ruiz (Universidad San Sebastián) has been awarded third place in the XXXII CAP Chile Competition. Designed for Teja Island in Valdivia, the competition jury praised the greenhouse system's "innovative and well-thought-out steel structure, with exterior and interior pathways that highlight the flora. It must, however, pay close attention to the scale of the structural elements in the smaller spaces."

Architecture reveals the realization of a society's cultural processes at a specific moment in history, reflecting in its elements both the modus operandi of an economy and the dominant values governing its organization. The conceptualization of an architectural project sparks an intense, interdisciplinary process of formal development and technical verification for each construction component and its execution procedures. Architecture is tasked with transforming these diverse languages into a gestalt, or a formal reality that articulates and tests vital properties of reality.

Numerous factors introduce distortions into the architectural process in different regions of the globe. The state of architecture depends directly on the quality of professional training, interdisciplinarity, and available resources. A given context's culture and economy determine what architecture can do—and how it can operate.

An icon of Rio de Janeiro's landscape and a must-see destination for tourists from around the world, the fascination surrounding Christ the Redeemer conceals a compelling construction history. Standing 38 meters tall atop Mount Corcovado and weighing nearly one thousand tons, the monumental project was designed by engineer Heitor da Costa Silva and took approximately five years to build (1926–1931). Based on Silva's initial drawings, the project was finalized with contributions from artist Carlos Oswald and French sculptor Paul Landowski, who was responsible for modeling all the components that make up the statue.

The concept for the project began to take shape in 1921, following discussions among Rio de Janeiro's government officials. In 1923, a design competition was held, which was won by Costa Silva. Construction did not begin until 1926, after full funding had been raised to bring the monumental project to life, which was finally completed in October 1931.

Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher contributed to the design of the first public housing developments built in Philadelphia after World War II.

The National Ideas Competition “Sustainable Housing Prototype Built with Wood,” promoted by the Cámara de la Madera, Mueble y Equipamiento de Córdoba (CAMMEC) and organized by the Colegio de Arquitectos de la Provincia de Córdoba (CAPC), was launched with the following premise: to develop a minimal housing prototype with wood as the primary material.

The jury awarded first prize to Agustín Berzero, Valeria Jaros, María Emilia Darricades and collaborators Maximiliano Torchio and Tomás Quaglia. Below, we present the winning project in the words of its authors.

The Chilean series Proyecto Habitar dives into the intimacy of homes to explore the reality of housing in Chile. Divided into 9 episodes exploring a range of housing-related themes, directors Joaquín Mora and Verónica Wüst aim to spark a discussion. "I think it is important that we start asking ourselves how we are living and how we want to live," Mora reflects.

During the filming stage, the filmmakers explored various ways to gain the protagonists' trust and tell the story of how they inhabit their spaces. "Throughout the process of working as a team, the opportunity and curiosity to use different formats arose, allowing room for exploration," Wüst comments.

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